What we want from a home is changing. Not long ago, the ambition was to climb the ladder rung by rung, hoping for gains along the way, with the plan of staying put one day.
But such ambition was already going out of style and now, thanks to the pandemic, it is rapidly being replaced by the search for a ‘forever home’ in which to settle down for decades, or even a lifetime.
The objective is long-term comfort, convenience and community. Such is the demand for a property with the potential to be the place to put down roots that, last month, a near-derelict cottage in the Shropshire village of Aston with an asking price of £200,000 fetched £400,000 as rival buyers vied to become its occupiers.